72 HERMES TEISMEGISTUS. 



bodies are animated (a), but those not living are again 

 matter by itself. And Soul likewise by itself approached 

 to (b) the Maker is cause of the life ; but cause of all the 

 life is that which is (cause) of the immortals. 



Hermes. How then are also the mortal animals different 

 from the mortal ? And how is it that the immortal and 

 making immortality, makes not the animals (so) ? 



11. Mind. And that there is some One who is making 

 these things is plain, and that He is also One is most 

 manifest ; for also there is one Soul and one Life and one 

 Matter. 



Hermes. Who then is He ? 



fi Mind. Who may it be other than The One God ? For 



,j to whom can it belong to make animated animals but to the 

 God only? 1 One then is God. Most ridiculous then if 

 having acknowledged the World to be One and the Sun 



, One and the Moon One and The Divinity One, but The God 



^Himself to be as multiple (c) as you wish. 2 



12. He then makes everything in many ways. And 

 what great thing is it for The God to make life and soul 

 and immortality and change, thou doing such many things. 

 For thou seest, and speakest, and hearest, and smellest, 

 and tastest, and touchest, and walkest, and understandest, 

 and breathest, and it is not another who is seeing, and 

 another who is hearing, and another who is speaking, and 

 other who is touching, and other who is smelling, and other 

 who is walking, and other who is understanding, and other 

 who is breathing, but one who is doing all these things. 

 But neither are these possible to be apart from The God. 

 For just as, shouldest thou become inert (d) of these, thou 

 art no longer animal ; so neither, should The God become 



I inert of them, what it is not lawful to say, no longer is 

 ; He God. 



13. For if it is demonstrated that nothing is possible to 



(ft) [4\]/vx.ot. (6) 7retpxx,sif^ivv}. (c) iroarov. (d) xxTOipyvj^s. 



1 Quoted by Lactant. (Divin. Instit., i., vi.). 



2 This passage disconnects the author from all complicity with the 

 Egyptian or Greek Mythology. 



